


Noldo U: Orodreth Lives In A Closet

by LadyBrooke



Series: Noldo U [1]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 12:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the Noldor have established a university in Valinor, Orodreth studies anthropology and is slightly insane, Maedhros and Fingon are roommates, and unwashed socks appear to achieve life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Noldo U: Orodreth Lives In A Closet

Fingon and Maedhros jumped as the door to their room slammed open and shut, as Orodreth dove through the door.

“Hey, I’m staying in your two’s room for a little bit. Or maybe until the end of the year. My roommate might be a little bit mad at me,” Orodreth said, as he sat on the floor. “Can I just live in the closet or something?”

“Weren’t you rooming with Turgon?” Maedhros asked, as Fingon opened the door to the closet, causing a small avalanche of socks to flow out. Fingon proceeded to shove the socks back in the closet, before gesturing at Orodreth to make his way in.

“Yes…there might have been a slight incident.” Orodreth muttered, as he dug his way into the closet, before perching on top of a small mound of something. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was. He assumed that the t-shirts were Fingon’s, as the nicer clothes seemed to be Maedhros’. “Do you have anything other than witty t-shirts, cousin? Oh, and can I put a hammock in here?”

Both of his cousins shrugged, before Maedhros asked the pressing question. “Is Turgon going to come and beat down our door looking for you because of this incident?”

“He shouldn’t,” Orodreth grinned, before continuing. “You know that girl in his Intro to Political Science class? Elen-whatever? She was in our room when I came back. Probably shouldn’t have asked him if he had finally figured out how babies were made while she was still in there, but whatever…he told me to get out. Don’t think I’m going to be welcome back anytime soon.”

Fingon and Maedhros were silent for a moment, before Fingon finally said, “Just don’t touch my socks in there.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m going to take a nap.” Orodreth said, closing the closet door.

~

Sometime later, Fingon and Maedhros were both rather confused when Orodreth’s voice came out of the closet. “Hey, Fingon? I think your socks just moved.”

“I told you not to touch my socks,” Fingon said, refusing to move from his chair.

“I didn’t! They moved under their own will power,” Orodreth said, as he opened the closet door and stepped out. “I think your socks have achieved life! Can I set up a study of their culture? I think they might be forming a tribe!”

“I need those socks to wear,” Fingon said. “They’ll probably stop moving after a trip through the washer.”

Orodreth yelled, “But-but-Fingon! If they’ve achieved life, it would be horrible to risk killing them! We’re talking about a new species that seems to be showing signs of higher awareness, if the fact that they have decorated their area with artwork means anything! I need to talk to Celegorm about this, he’s still studying Biology, isn’t he?”

Fingon stared, as he heard Maedhros laughing in the background. Orodreth appeared to take his silence for agreement, disappearing back into the closet with a piece of paper while muttering about needing to gather the supplies for a proper ethnography if it turned out the socks really had achieved life and an elven level of intelligence.

~

A few days later, Orodreth was still on his caffeine fueled quest to understand the socks’ culture. Maedhros looked up around midnight to see Orodreth stumble out of the closet with a slightly insane grin.

“Hi cousin! Did you see that sock jump off the dresser? I think they might be starting to organize sports!”

Maedhros stared. “You look horrible.”

“Yes, yes, of course. This is too important to leave for long, and since I have to go to class I’ve cut back on my sleeping hours. Where’s Fingon, by the way?” Orodreth said, blinking as he registered that only one of his cousins was in the room.

Maedhros grimaced, “He’s spending the night with Aegnor.”

“Oh? Why is he rooming with Aegnor? Ata and Amil paid extra for Aegnor to have a single room, on account of his issues,” Orodreth said.

“Because I needed him to go away for a little while,” Maedhros said, rolling over in his bed.

Orodreth blinked. “Well…just don’t let him take any of the socks with him if you make him move out again. I’m trying to see if the socks will develop the skills to make fire on their own, and introducing them to Aegnor could contaminate the results.”

Maedhros considered asking Orodreth if he ever thought of anything not related to the socks, before remembering that the last time he had asked this question, Orodreth had gone on a four hour rant about how these socks were one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Besides, he didn’t need another period of learning about anthropological terms. The last time had been bad enough, when Orodreth had scribbled the terms on the walls after running out of paper.

“I’m going to bed,” was what he finally decided to say.

“Alright, good-night! I’ll venture back into the closet soon, I just came out for food.”

~

Three weeks later, Fingon was back living in the room, Orodreth was still living in the closet, there was a strict no washing socks rule in place for the ones in the closet, and both Fingon and Maedhros were baffled by Orodreth’s behavior. But more importantly, their parents had arrived to visit them. Well, Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Anairë were there. Nerdanel and Fëanor refused to visit at the same time, and Fëanor normally refused to visit at the same time as Fingolfin, but had showed up this time to make sure that “You don’t blame my son for anything that Fingon did.”

Apparently, Fingolfin and Fëanor were still arguing about whether one of them should have paid for all the damage to last year's room. There had been an incident involving food, the fire department, a mouse named Olwë, and Olwë the elf. Suffice to say, Caranthir still insisted that he thought Maedhros meant the mouse when he yelled for someone to grab Olwë and drag him outside during the fire, Olwë the mouse now lived with the Ambarussa, Olwë the elf no longer visisted the university, and Finwë still insisted that it had been an honest mistake on Caranthir's part, because his sweet grandson would never do anything to seriously hurt someone. Angrod now thought that Finwë was becoming senile, but life could be worse.

And now Fingolfin was lecturing them about the importance of doing laundry. “Fingon! When was the last time you washed your clothes?”

“I’m not allowed to!” Fingon was pouting in his chair, “And why does no one ever mention Maedhros needing to do laundry?”

“Not allowed - Fingon, don’t give me nonsense like that. You’re allowed to do laundry. And Maedhros isn’t running around wearing shoes without socks, unlike you. I know we bought you extra pairs of socks.” Fingolfin sighed as he finished. Behind him, he heard Fëanor trying to stifle laughter, while Anairë began to gather dirty laundry into a basket.

Fingon shot her a grateful look, “Thanks Amil! But seriously, Orodreth is going to have a mental breakdown if the socks get washed.”

“You can’t blame your cousin for-” Fingolfin was cut off mid-sentence, as something came flying into the room and knocked into him.

“Hi Uncle Fingolfin! Oh! Hello Auntie Anairë and Uncle Fëanor! What are you all doing here?” Nobody replied for a moment, as they took in the caffeine fueled, twitchy life form that was apparently one of their nephews.

Finally, Fëanor spoke, “I always knew there was something off about Finarfin and his children.”

Under normal circumstances, Fingolfin would have argued with his brother. Unfortunately, he had to admit that Fëanor might have a point at this moment. “Orodreth? Child, are you alright?”

Fingon and Maedhros were both standing behind Orodreth, frantically shaking their heads, while Anairë left the room. Fingolfin wondered for a moment where she was going, before Orodreth brought him out of his thoughts. “Yes, though, do you have any caffeine? I think I need some more. But I can’t go get more, because the socks might do something interesting while I’m gone.”

“The socks?” Fingolfin suddenly regretted pressuring his son to do laundry. If Fingon had actually listened to him and done so, and it had caused Orodreth to snap…

Orodreth cheerfully nodded, “Oh yes! The ones in the closet achieved life awhile back. It’s quite fascinating!” Even Fëanor was looking concerned now, though Fingolfin wasn’t sure if that was for Orodreth, or if he was mentally going through the rest of his sons to make sure that Orodreth hadn’t kidnapped any of them and stuffed them in a closet somewhere in a drug fueled hallucination. Eru knew that Fëanor had enough of them that one could go missing for a few days and not be noticed. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen both of the Ambarussa together for a while.

Maedhros spoke up, “I know Orodreth is insane, but he does have a point. Fingon’s socks to seem to have started to move on their own. You can look in the closet yourself, if you want.” Fingon started to nod at this, causing their fathers to shoot each other looks, clearly blaming the other for their son’s loss of sanity.

Both of them looked towards the door as it opened, and Finwë stepped inside, followed by Anairë and Indis. “Boys! Anairë came and told me that there might be a problem.”

“Grandfather! Grandmother! ” Orodreth spoke again, sounding like a hyperactive squirrel.

Indis and Finwë both turned to look at him, before Indis knelt on the floor next to him. “Hello Orodreth,” she said. “Is there a reason you’re in Maedhros and Fingon’s room?” She started to straighten his clothes as he sat there.

“Uh-huh. Turgon and I got into a fight, so I moved into their closet. But than Fingon’s socks came to life,” Orodreth seemed to have finally started to come off his caffeine fueled high.

“The socks came to life?” Finwë said. “Where are these socks now, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“In the closet,” Orodreth said, leaning against Indis, as she began to stroke his hair. Fingon and Maedhros considered protesting that they never got treated like that, before realizing that Indis and Finwë were probably acting like this because they thought Orodreth was having a mental breakdown.

Finwë strode over to the closet and opened the door, before beginning to stare. “Should they be dragging dust bunnies around on leashes?”

"They're real?" Fingolfin and Fëanor exclaimed, before glaring at each other.

“They have pets now?” Orodreth said, snapping awake and stumbling over to the closet. “This is amazing! I need to record this, and-”

“You need to sleep, preferably in a bed instead of a closet for once,” Indis said. “Fingon, is it alright if your cousin uses your bed?”

Fingon considered protesting, but one look at his grandmother’s face made him reconsider. “That’s fine.”

“Good. Now, I trust no one will be doing anything to jeopardize Orodreth’s study?” she glanced around the room. Fëanor looked ready to protest, before his father looked at him as well.

“Excellent,” she finished. “Now, Orodreth, we’re going to leave you here to sleep, since I trust you actually will do so.”

Orodreth would have answered, but he was already curled up in a little ball asleep.


End file.
